mercury
/ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/
"mercury" is a 7-letter English headword indexed on PlainSpell.
The verdict
“mercury” has 11 generated spelling variants in the English index at frequency #6,935. The variants make it a useful spelling check.
- #6,935
- frequency rank, English
- 4,057
- “M” headwords
- 11
- tracked misspellings
- 3
- confusable pairs
According to Wiktionary data (CC BY-SA, analyzed September 3, 2026) - Senses relating to the metal.
Corpus desk
Index EN-mercury · mercury · English
mercury · rank #6,935 · 11 variants · 3 confusables
- FREQ-COMMON #6,935
- LEN-LONG 7 letters
- VOW-3 3 vowels
- CONFUS-LOW 3 pairs
- VAR-MID 11 variants
- BOOK-MID 4,057
- PHOTO-FINISH mega
Nearest frequency peer: mega (-1 rank slots)
Read with this headword: Spelling guide for this pattern
Desk codes from Wiktionary headword shape, FrequencyWords rank tier, confusable-pair count, generated misspelling depth, letter-cohort book size, and photo-finish peer. Not a difficulty grade.
Rank peers near misspelling magnet “mercury”
Same rarity band: useful when a typo lands on a peer headword
- machinery
machinery
93,069 corpus weight
- mansion
mansion
93,068 corpus weight
- mega
mega
93,067 corpus weight
- mercury
mercury
93,066 corpus weight
- namely
namely
93,065 corpus weight
- NBC
NBC
93,064 corpus weight
What this shows “mercury” sits among these FrequencyWords peers; misspelling depth is tracked separately in the edit-distance chart.
Visual similarity to commonly confused words
How many letter changes separate each confused pair (Levenshtein distance, normalized).
Source: PlainSpell confusable corpus (Wiktionary, CC BY-SA).
| Property | Value |
|---|---|
| Headword | mercury |
| Language | English |
| Part of speech | Noun |
| IPA | /ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/ |
| Letters | 7 |
| Frequency rank | #6,935 |
| Misspellings tracked | 11 |
| Confusable pairs | 3 |
| Source | Wiktionary (kaikki.org) |
Frequency seat of misspelling magnet “mercury”
A misspelling magnet
The generator records 11 spelling variants around mercury (IPA /ˈmɜːkjʊɹi/), anoun. Corpus frequency is #6,935 among 4,057 “M” headwords. Wiktionary lists 9 senses, so context still picks the gloss.
Our generated misspelling index lists 11 likely wrong-spelling variants for mercury, with forms such as "emrcury", "mecrury", and "merccury". Each variant is a distinct typo pattern an edit-distance generator flags, typically a doubled-consonant error, a silent-letter drop, or a vowel substitution. It also participates in 3 confusable-pair relationships, "mercy", "merry", "mercer", where similar look or sound leads writers to substitute one word for another in context.
Etymologically, the entry records: The noun is derived from Middle English mercurie (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver; a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis); etc.”), borrowed from Late Latin mercurius (“metallic chemical eleme… The correct English form is mercury, spelled M-E-R-C-U-R-Y.
Definition
- 1Senses relating to the metal.
- 2Senses relating to the metal.
- 3Senses relating to the metal.
- 4Senses relating to the metal.
- 5Senses relating to the metal.
- 6Senses relating to plants.
- 7Senses relating to plants.
- 8Senses relating to plants.
- 9Senses relating to plants.
Recorded use
Wiktionary examplesThese source excerpts show how mercury appears in context. They illustrate usage; the definition above remains the entry’s reference meaning.
When therfore they perceaue a ſufficient quantitie of golde thus remaynynge on the tables, they gather it with diligence and put it in a tray or great ſhallowe dyſſhe of wod […] they beate or mixte (or amalgame it as they caule it) with Mercurie or quickſyluer, […]
[I]f the inverted Tube of Mercury be but 25 Digits high, or ſomevvhat more, the Quick-ſilver vvill not fall but remain ſuſpended in the Tube; becauſe it cannot preſs the ſubjacent Mercury vvith ſo great a force, as does the incumbent Cylinder of the Air reaching thence to the top of the Atmoſphere: […]
Etymology
The noun is derived from Middle English mercurie (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver; a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis); etc.”), borrowed from Late Latin mercurius (“metallic chemical element, quicksilver”), Latin Mercurius (“Mercury, the Roman god of commerce, communication, etc.; the planet Mercury; etc.”), possibly from merc-, a stem of merx (“goods, wares; merchandise”); further etymology uncertain, possibly: * from Etruscan; or * from Proto-Indo-European *merǵ- (“to divide”), or *merkʷ- (“to grasp; to take”). The suffix -urius is also thought to be from Etruscan. Noun sense 1.1 (“metallic chemical element”) is from the association in medieval alchemy of the seven known metals—gold, silver, quicksilver, copper, iron, tin, and lead—with the Sun, the Moon, and the planets Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn. An analogy was probably also drawn between the element being liquid at room temperature, and the Roman god Mercury’s attribute of swiftness. Noun sense 2 (“senses relating to plants”) is derived from mercurial (“(obsolete) any of the plants now known as mercury”, noun), from Middle English mercurial (“a plant, probably goosefoot (genus Chenopodium); (possibly) dog’s mercury (Mercurialis perennis)”, noun) from Anglo-Norman mercurial, Old French mercurial, or directly from their etymon Latin mercuriālis (“a plant, probably annual mercury (Mercurialis annua)”), short for herba mercuriālis (“(probably) annual mercury”, literally “herb or plant of the god Mercury”). Mercuriālis (“pertaining to the Roman god Mercury”, adjective) is derived from Mercurius (“the Roman god Mercury”) (see above) + -ālis (suffix forming adjectives of relationship from nouns). Noun sense 2.2.2.1 (“Blitum bonus-henricus”) is from the fact that this plant was often confused with annual mercury (noun sense 2.1). The verb is derived from the noun.
This word in other languages
Common misspellings
Also misspelled as:
- emrcury
- mecrury
- merccury
- mercruy
- mercurry
- mercuryy
- mercuyr
- merrcury
- merucry
- mmercury
- mrecury
Misspelling Pattern Breakdown
How far each generated variant is from the correct spelling of mercury - measured in single-character edits (insert, delete, or substitute a letter). Larger bars are easier to catch; one-edit slips are the sneakiest.
Definitions, pronunciation, and etymology for this entry are drawn from Wiktionary via the kaikki.org structured extract (CC BY-SA); frequency ordering uses the FrequencyWords open word-frequency list (2018 English corpus, MIT). See the methodology for how each field is sourced and updated.
Frequently Asked Questions
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Similar English words by spelling shape
Same letter count and similar misspelling depth for "mercury", not the corpus desk frequency band.
Same letter count
Frequency-ranked English headwords with 7 letters (nearest by frequency rank).
Similar misspelling depth
Headwords with a similar count of attested misspellings (11 here; floor ≥5).